4 in 1 printer. Any good?

Norman-B

I have a Brother Mono laser printer, Brother Phone and Fax and an Epson scanner. I need room on my desk, so thought I would go for an all in one. Aldi are selling a Lexmark X 5495 for £49.99 and the same thing is on Ebay for £115. Is this printer any good?

Idiophreak

Normal warning about Lexmark applies - cheap upfront, but very costly consumables. Check this out first before you decide if it's worth it..

Norman-B

Can you suggest one cheap/less expensive to run?

Idiophreak

I generally find Epson stuff (especially 3rd party) pretty cheap, so (without really looking), I might try something like this for similar money:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/136143

TiTheRev

Ive got a Canon MP530 which was slightly more at cost, but is very cheap to maintain at £4 per chipped cartridge, and they're all individual, so you dont have to buy a box load, just the one you need).

moneysavingwannabe

Hi,

I'm not an expert but been happy with my Epson scan,print,camera card etc.
Cartridges are cheap and they have some different models to mine on sale in Tesco £29.99 and £49.99.

Norman-B

TiTheRev wrote: »

Ive got a Canon MP530 which was slightly more at cost, but is very cheap to maintain at £4 per chipped cartridge, and they're all individual, so you dont have to buy a box load, just the one you need).

Thanks for the info but can you explain what you mean by 'chipped' cartridge, please.

fwor

Each cartridge has a computer chip which identifies it to the printer and tracks how much ink is left.

If you buy non-original cartridges without a chip, you generally have to transfer the chip from old to new, and it probably will not track the amount of ink left.

If you get an original cartridge refilled, the shop that does it will ~usually~ have a piece of kit that resets the chip so that it's shown as full again.

You can also buy a resetter yourself for Canon (and other) makes of printer, but they are quite expensive.

moneysavingwannabe

Hi,

I just buy the compatible cartridges for my epson they are 4 cartridges for £10 (It takes 4 different cartridges so you replace the one that runs out)

No need for chipped stuff

lilibeth

Norman I wouldn't touch that personally. During my 'Which' subscription (very recently expired) the last big printer test I saw that they did the Canon 'all in ones' swept the board.
They had the Pixma mp600r
Pixma mp610
and Pixma mp970 as best buys.

I'm looking to buy a mp600r myself just trying to time it right with the back to uni sales, to get the best price.

But as others have said you need to factor in the cost of compatibles (or originals) because that is where the true expense lies, not the intial purchase.

fwor

Lilibeth - unless you absolutely have to have a wireless network interface, the MP610 looks to be better value than the MP600r.

It's slightly faster and has twice the scanner resolution (though admittedly most people will never use it at max setting), and costs £30 less at just over £100 from Ebuyer.

It has all of the usual features such as printing directly from memory card, and copying without a PC connected, plus you can print wirelessly directly from mobile phones (and probably laptops, though I've not actually tried that) via infra red!